Sunday, August 29, 2010

I hate to give this subject more space than it deserves but I ran into an observant Jew today who has lived in White Meadow Lake for only a few years. My celebrated distancing from his “rabbis” Asher Herson, son of Moshe Herson (pictured), and their lucrative, spiritual Ponzi scheme (a.k.a., The Chabad Center of Northwest New Jersey) pre-date this fellow’s arrival to the neighborhood by a good many years, but apparently he’d heard my name whispered in one of their multi-million-dollar buildings, so he approached me.

This neighbor, a baal tshuvah, described how uterly cheated he and his wife feel after just several years of association with Herson’s Chabad; how his davening alone had been grossly diminished by their shenanigans (his word, not mine, though I’m fond of it myself, especially when the shoe fits). I learned that Herson benefactor Mort Kwestel, that piece of animated offal--the shvantz wagging the dog--was no longer around much, but how other ignorant ninnies still fill Herson’s coffers and pay his mortgages as he peddles his peculiar brand of feel-good conservadoxism (my word, not his, though my neighbor clearly assimilated its meaning) claiming to "change lives".

All of this is to say that, as the High Holidays approach, I couldn’t be happier to have had nothing but nothing to do with the Herson family’s business-masquerading-as-religion, and to have remained untarnished by it for so many years now that I’d need to re-read my own ancient account of that sad and silly place to refresh my memory, if indeed that were my desire. Which, thank G-d, it isn’t.

James Toney’s first MMA fight (against living legend, 47-year-old Randy Coulture) didn’t make it out of the first round. It didn’t even make it out of the fourth minute. What was this dummy thinking?Yes, James Toney is an accomplished boxer who has been KO’ing people since the late 1980s. But the UFC isn't a boxing match with 16-oz. gloves laced on 90-IQ gorillas. The morons who said Toney had a "puncher’s chance" and were brain-dead enough to put their money on this stiff obviously never wrestled.

Watching Randy mug this goon reminded me of my Morris Hills High School Fraternity Brothers visiting Fairleigh Dickinson University in Madison, NJ, for my birthday. A fight broke out between our party (a few college freshmen and about a dozen high school guys) and another party of perhaps 20 college-age upper classmen, most of them starting players for FDU’s Divison-Three football team. The FDU defensive line was bigger, older, stronger and seriously outnumbered my teenage pals. And we beat the bejesus out of them (didn't we Johno?)

Thursday, August 19, 2010

With regard to the proposed mosque at Ground Zero (let’s call it the “We’re Erecting a Mosque as an Act of Gloating as We’ve Always Done Historically on Every Battlefield Where We’ve Ever Claimed Victory” Mosque), Norm Breyfogle (artist of Batman and other comics) naively laments on his FaceBook, “What's on my mind? Freedom of religion. Isn't Islam a religion? Isn't the First Amendment still in effect? I mean, it hasn't been rescinded or anything, has it?”

Among the many comments from many folks, mine: “Cannibalism is a religion, too. So was Manson's family, Jim Jones's cult, the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh... You are using semantics (the First Amendment or otherwise) to defend the wrong people. This is not a freedom of religion issue.”

To which the comicbook writer Elliot S. Maggin adds, “Stop. Explain please. In what Universe and under what circumstances is this anything other than a freedom of religion issue?”

To which I clarify: “The people financing this edifice to sacrificial infidels are mocking us after backing other acts of human terrorism. And it's good, well-meaning folks like you, Elliot, and Norm, and a host of other idealists who make them realize what a soft and easy target America has become. As I said earlier, the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh is a religion, too. By strict, fifth-grade interpretation of the First, you'd have to legitimize them as well. But that's not how things work.”

To which Maggin appends (and you can feel his fists clenching): “How things work is a lame and logic-free rationale for casual and convenient divergence from fundamental principles. Interpretation of the First Amendment in this case - and in most cases - is simply a matter of reading and understanding it. And to ascribe the equation of the downtown community center’s financing with the people who once upon a time sent a gang of killers to drop a couple of buildings on the people who currently own this onetime coat shop and our other neighbors to fifth-grade level logic would be grossly generous. This attitude is on its face the worst and most un-American type of ideological prejudice.”

To which I sighed. Because the enemies of America read this and laugh. Because there were even certain Jews who voted for Hitler (and would do so again) as fear makes certain types of high-verbal, otherwise intelligent people (who are all-too-often Jewish) tragically unintelligent when it comes to their own survival. And I replied, “Your belief that the attacks of Sept. 11 were once upon a time and merely a couple of buildings tells me everything I need to know. I'm sure you're as well-intentioned as the Jews on Kristallnacht who said, 'So they broke a few windows. It's nothing we can't fix…' As much as I'd hope you're right about your belief that there are moderates among these people who just want to pray their own way, it's historically clear that you are terribly, dangerously mistaken. Our very decent Constitution is just one of the weapons they are turning on us now. Welcome to The United States of Atlantis before they sink it."

Meth Addict

Attempting to post comments to this blog? Note that I don't accept anonymous comments. No guts, no glory.

Eye of the Beholder

Meth is a dangerous writer. He doesn’t seem to care if you like him.- Neal Adams

Meth’s writing is fresh and absorbing—clever and replete with surprises.- Stan Lee

Anyone who can give Barry Windsor-Smith a pissy fit is okay in my book.- Joe Staton

The only thing about Cliff’s writing that makes me crazy is the demented titles he puts on them. For a guy who writes as well as he does, and who thinks as deeply as he does, I can’t figure it out! - Harlan Ellison

Clifford Meth is one of dark fiction's best-kept secrets.- Barnes and Noble

Meth is one of the more intriguing writers of short stories to arrive in recent years. A damned fine writer. He does not write the easy stories.- Tony Isabella / The Comic Buyer’s Guide

Meth’s imagination, integrity and insight are touched by a dark, often perverse humor. It’s always exciting to discover new writers on their way up—and Meth’s course is worth charting. - Jim Steranko

I don’t know how much money the Cockrums got, but having a friend like Clifford Meth is worth more than a million dollars. - John Romita

Cliff’s writing has attitude. While his stories are frequently angry or outrageous, they’re all honest insights into the human psyche. - Dave Cockrum (co-creator of The X-Men)

Meth is a unique and exciting voice--funny, twisted, visionary. His insights into character and culture are often startling and his stories, always entertaining. I am a huge fan. - Richard Saperstein, Pres. The Weinstein Company

Clifford Meth sharpens the mundane details of everyday life to a razor's edge. I know of no other experience so simultaneously depressing...and uplifting. - Steve Brown, Chairman IDT Entertainment

You write character dialogue like O'Hara & string words together so effortlessly, kiddo. Kudos to you! Love good writing--the stuff so rare in comics & animation, my two vexing venues...I'm ossified, I'm sure, by actually reading top story work. - Alex Toth

Although they're called dark fiction, there's a "real" quality to Clifford Meth's stories that lifts them up and out of his books. And each successive story remains unique enough to make me start another, wondering what he'll come up with next. - Steve Forbert

Clifford Meth knows things. Dark, dank, nasty things... He doesn't scrape away the barnacles covering the hull of human interaction so much as he lifts up the barnacles, describes what's under them, and then puts the barnacles back and walks away with his hands in his pockets, whistling in the dark. - Peter David

Clifford Meth has done more to make the comic book industry better for its creators than has the collective career of many good people working within it. Those who speak much and do little struggle to fathom how some inspire granduer with few words. To them, Clifford Meth is of the unfathomable. - Michael Netzer

[Meth's] work is about the dark side of life, as if he were sculpting beautifully realistic statues while working exclusively in blood and excrement. And then setting them on fire...I'm a huge fan. I read him mouth open and giggling, stunned, amused and aroused. - Bill Messner-Loebs

I read Clifford Meth because the guy has a unique niche. He doesn't write fiction--he writes punk fiction! - Andy Shernoff (The Dictators)

Meth's writing is dark, relentless and always in your face. It doesn’t make for easy reading, but it is highly emotional and makes you pay attention, which is the best thing a writer can do... He writes from a place others won’t walk. - Marv Wolfman (creator of Blade)

Every Clifford Meth story is a tale of two balls. - Peppi Marchello (The Good Rats)

If you have missed the true, revealing richness of [Meth's] implications, then consider this an urgent reminder--a rap on the knuckles--to read it again. - Robert Bloch (author of Psycho)

Cliff writes very well about very intimate subjects.- Steve Gerber (creator of Howard the Duck)

It's easy to be your friend when there ain't no shit coming down. It's when the nails are being driven into your wrists that you find out whether somebody is a real friend and a stand-up person. And that's Cliff. - Harlan Ellison

Cliff, on behalf of the creative community, let me be the zillionth to thank you for the great care and Ellisonian-level protectiveness you've shown to the giants. - Mark Waid

Meth can be subtle, beautiful and venal in one sentence. - Howard Chaykin

Saying good things about Clifford Meth is like giving endorsements to Zorro. - Barney Dannelke

Comics for Sale

In addition to representing Dave Cockrum's personal collection for his Estate, I am selling my Silver Age collection. Click here for details.